One of the things I wanted to do with the car was upgrade the brakes. At one point I purchased the standard aftermarket mods for these cars aka Z31 rear rotors, S14 calipers and Modern Motorsports caliper mounting brackets – which is still one of the best bang for buck rear upgrades around.

Anyway after trying a few different things and combinations the final solution was chosen and custom fabrication was carried out. This setup was selected for a few reasons. They are as follows

Close in sizing to the FIA approved rear vented setup that was used on the works rally cars.

Park Brake Cable holders = Modified Nissan Pulsar N13 items (If I recall – I picked up a number of items from a pick-a-part from different model Nissans so not 100% sure) for the wheel end and a custom bracket for the other end.

Park Brake Lever = Standard 240z/260z setup no changes required.

Locating ring = Custom made to ID the rotors 90mm centre vs 68mm for the stock + this also was made to ID on the RS Watanabe wheels I am running.

So pictures all this work as follows – but would I do it again???? No cost a lot of time and $$.

What started out as a strip to fix the rust in the car has lasted about 14 years longer than it should have. Does not help due to project creep and me changing my mind on the end goal of the car. Anyway time for an update in the story.

So after the car sitting in the back of the brothers works for….well….too many years it was time to get things moving again. So selling off stuff to free up some much needed funds to pay for the labour and materials was in order. With funds at the ready the car was pulled from the back of the workshop and the panel finishing could begin.

With all the prep work complete the next phase in this epic rebuild was some texture coat/stone guard to be applied to the underside of the car. After a bit of thought and discussion it was also decided to put texture coat inside the car on the floor also. After stripping all the sound deadening off and not wanting to do it again (ever) I decided that texture coat on the inside of the car would help a little in this area + I plan to have good modern carpet underlay that will add to sound deadening. Not that I am too fussed about it really as the car will not have a stereo fitted – well that is the current plan.

Time for the chosen colour to be allied to the under side and inside of the car before moving on to the outside and engine bay. The car was original a dark metallic green. After the first owners slight off track experience the car was painted a custom metallic green that was a few shades lighter. I decided to go for a factory colour – green still. This colour was used only during the first 2 years of production of the 240z/Fairlady Z/Fairlady Z432 and given the new heart for the car in a sort of Z432 theme with a modern spin this original Z432 colour option was chosen. 907 is the factory colour code.

This is one area of the project that I changed my mind on. First I started to build a L28 that was bored to just over 3000cc. Using some Tomie pistons from Japan that were designed for the L28 stock stroke but using the longer L24 rods these took the stock 86mm bore out to 90mm – yep 4mm over the standard.

Just before I complete the build on this engine I decided I really want to change the theme of this project. I have always loved the PS30 aka Fairlady Z432. Approx 480 were build and sold in Japan. These domestic models were power by the Nissan S20 engine which is a 2000cc inline 6 with DOHC configuration and triple side draft carburetors. As there engines are rare finding one was out of my budget so a modern Nissan DOHC inline 6 was selected. Here are some pics of the S20 engine.

Initially I was going to build a RB30DE with the triple DCOE throttle bodies that I had for the L30 project. But I managed to find a hybrid RB engine that was freshly imported from Japan. The new heart for the project was going to be a RB25 bottom end with a RB26 head. To help fund the project other parts had to be sold off, so the RB30E engine was sold as was the RB26 head I purchased (I purchased a complete RB26 at one point but sold the bottom end quickly after I removed the head).

Ok so with the sale of the Compomotive ML’s some new larger rims were going to be needed to full the large flares my brother had custom made for the zed. The acquiring of JDM rims means more $$ would be required – so it was sometime before these were in the garage.

RS Watanabe R Type were purchased in gold in 16×8.5 -6 offset for the fronts and 16×9.5 -19 offset for the rear. Rapped in Toyo rubber 225/50/16 front and 245/45/16 in the rear.

At the time I was storing Dad’s JDM Fairlady Z (S31) at my house, now back living in NZ. So the new rims had to be installed on this to see how they would sit on a stock zed. As you can see Dad’s old Fairlady Z was also fitted with a G-Nose in this case a 2 piece fibre glass replica.

A few months later the suspension was installed in my car minus the springs. We setup some blocks of wood at fully compressed spring length to check rim to panel clearances. As the brother had only complete one front flare at this point in time I told him they were too large on the front. So I purchased some new front fender and smaller steel flares were added. In these pics you will see that one front guard has not been flared yet, but this guard did have the lip rolled and a bit of rod tack welded to the rolled lip to add strength back into the fender.

As stated in Dec 2002 some metal flares were added to the body. I was living in Australia at the time so process on the zed was….well somewhat stalled. Now that flares were on the car rims would be required to full these out. I first purchased some Compomotive ML in 15×8 and 15×9 these were ordered in negative offsets – however when shipped the offset was not as large as expected. I manged to make contact with another zed owner who happened to be looking for rims. A deal was struck and his 260z 2+2 was now fitted with the Compomotive ML and I had in my collection a G-Nose.

This G-Nose was an original 5 piece unit including headlight covers. However at some point in the G-Noses life the lower section was damaged and replace with an ok replica made from steel. Here are some pics of the G-Nose are aquired.

First I lost sycnro’s on 2nd and 3rd (gearbox rebuilt), then a little more rust began to show here and there with most of this under the battery box (a common spot for S30 to rust, however I am sure the roll over did not help as I am sure some battery acid would have added in this process)

So my brother (a panelbeater) and I striped the car so the rust could be repaired. Here are few pics of the strip and the rust found.

With the major rust repairs done the car sat under the car port at mum and dad’s place for a while as I had purchased another zed that was keeping me poor. I don’t have any photo’s of this car but it was HS30-00016, yep one of the early girls alright. Requiring a lot of rust repairs and me still young this car was sold and is now in Australia. The sale of HS30-00016 gave me some $$ to got towards my first home, well towards a deposit on a block of land north of Auckland. Later my then girlfriend (now wife) and I build our house on this land. So you could say the sale of the early 240z did help me with providing garage for my toys. I never did get zed into the one of 3 garages I build with the house as the house was sold and we moved to Australia for a few years. So the project car sat.

On a xmas holiday back from Australia in 2001 I helped move the zed to my brother workshop were the shell was media blasted and painted in an epoxy primer.

Over the new years period in 01/02 it was decided we would put some steel flares on the car sort of JDM Fairlady 240ZG but not the normal bolt on overfender flares. So here is the early stages of the custom metal work.

After viewing a few datsun zed cars ranging from rusty 240z to out of my budget cars it was settled that I would return to the first zed I viewed and this would be purchased. Harry told me this would be the car I would come back and purchase but he wanted me to see others to ensure I knew what was out there. So with funds exchanged and paper work done I acquired my first Datsun. I still own this car today and have not and will not part with it ever. It is a 1977 (assembled in 76) Datsun 260z 2 seater aka RS30.

Imported from one of the Pacific Islands in 1978 (as was a few cars back then – usually by armed service personal, or by some individuals who purchased the car from X – shipped to Y before importing into NZ, kind of parallel importing before parallel importing was permitted) the car has not had too many owners but is well known for the “Ghosts of Bay Park” photo.
This was a result of one of many Datsun Z Club track days held at “Bay Park circuit at Mount Maunganui”.

Some spirited driving

+

kitty litter =

Here are some other pictures I got from the previous owners that show what the car looked like before the above happened.

After the new body shape was applied to the car (see kitty litter results above) the car was striped and rebuilt. The previous owner was kind enough to let me have these photos also. Once the rebuild was complete the result some years later was the car I purchased.

Here is few pics of 霞 , a few weeks after my purchase, after a groom and cut/polish and took out the best 260z at the club concourse.

Well where to begin. I guess I should start with why I like 70′s Japanese cars so much. I think a lot of this has to with the era in which I was born – the 70′s and the fact that in the early 70′s as dad was in the armed forces therefore the family was posted to a small Asian country.

So I can only assume being so close to the home land of Japanese cars there were many on the roads. And thus began the love for 70′s Japanese cars.

And dad did purchase a New Mitsubishi Galant GTO GS-R (blue of cause) – though I believe he wanted a 240z (260z 2+2 just released then and out of the budget) and a second hand one was almost purchased before the family man kicked in as said…..hmm no room for the kids.

Anyway fast forward by 10 years and it is now the 80′s. A mate of my brother who had left school to take up an apprenticeship with a boat builder, and therefore hand coin, saved up and purchase a brown Datsun 240z. And the love affair with a Datsun Zed was spored.

12 months later I was 15 and now armed with my driving license so it began. Although it was some 6 years before I would purchase my first zed. A number of other Japanese cars and motorbike took pride of place at the olds place while I studied and worked. When I was 18 I almost purchase a silver 240z from a guy that worked with my dad at Air NZ however the insurance was going to be too much for student so it would be a few more years before I would have one.

Move ahead 3 more years – a new job and 3x 240z and 1x 260z 2+2 owned by fellow work mates and the yearning for a zed once again beckoned. As luck would have it all were members of the Datsun Z Club Inc (now known as the Z Club NZ) so with my 1986 Toyota Collora GT now up for sale the hunt began. I joined the Datsun Z Club as owning a car is not a requirement just an interest in the marque is enough. I attended a few race meetings, helped out at events and met some great people. Any who were was I. With the passing of Graeme Collins (one of the founding members) a former club member was at the funeral. One of my work colleagues at the funeral discovered that his car might be up for sale, knowing that I was looking for a zed Alan arrange for me to view the car.